sn't a thousand such battalions
of the flower of young American manhood! Then what fear could
we know in time of war?"

The girls looked on almost breathlessly, starting at the boom
of the sunset gun, then thrilling with a new realization of what
their country meant when the band crashed out in the exultant
strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" and the Stars and Stripes
fluttered down at West Point, to rise on another day of the nation's
life.

It was over, and the visitors took the stage to the railway station.

What a fearfully dull evening it seemed in camp! Dick had never
known the time to hang so heavily. He would almost have welcomed
guard duty.

Over in another tent near by a "soiree" was in full but very quiet
blast, for that bumptious plebe, Mr. Briggs, had been caught in
more mischief, and was being "instructed" by his superiors in
length of service.

Prescott, however, didn't even look in to see what was happening.

* * * * * * * *

"Isn't West Point life glorious, Belle?" asked Laura eagerly as
the West Shore train carried them toward New York.

"Fine!" replied Belle enthusiastically. "But still---wait until
we have seen Annapolis."

At ten o'clock the next morning the young ladies and Mrs. Bentley
were traveling in a Pullman car, on another stage of their journey.
"I wonder what our young cadets are doing?" Laura wondered
aloud, as she leaned forward.

"Enjoying themselves, you may be sure," Mrs. Bentley replied promptly,
with a smile.

"That summer encampment seems like one long, huge lark," put in
Belle Meade. "It must be great for young men to be able to enjoy
themselves so thoroughly."

"I wonder just what our young men are doing at this moment?" persisted
Laura.

"Well, if they're not dressing for something," calculated Mrs.
Bentley, "you may be sure they're moving about looking as elegant
as ever and making themselves highly agreeable in a social way."

Ye gods of war! At that very moment Dick, in field uniform,
and dripping profusely under the hot sun, was carrying a long
succession of planks, each nearly as long and heavy as he could
manage, to other cadets who waited to nail them in place on a
pontoon bridge out over an arm of the Hudson. Greg Holmes was
one of four young men toiling at the rope by which they were
endeavoring to drag a mountain howitzer into position up a steep
slope near Crow's Nest, while Anstey, studying field fortification,
was